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“Gross!
Is there a dead rat in your kitchen?”
Imagine a guest comes to your house and they get to smell a foul, rotten, funky smell coming out of your kitchen.
Will they ever want to eat anything from there?
Moreover, would you yourself want to eat anything from such a smelly kitchen?
Of course not.
After reading this article you’ll know some of the biggest reasons your kitchen is giving out the bad smells and easy tips you can apply to make it neat and clean again.
- The Cursed Kitchen Sink
Let’s face it.
The kitchen sink gets to taste all that oil and grease that we rinse off dirty plates.
So, it’s obvious that oil and grease will run their course and make the kitchen give out a bad odor.
Most of the time what happens is because of the thick nature of the grease or oil, it’s very hard for them to get drained properly.
They mostly get stuck inside the sink and rot over time.
Which leads to a rotten smell.
Solution?
Baking soda and vinegar.
Well, it’s basic chemistry, to be honest.
Oil and grease are acidic in nature and we want to make them neutral for them to get drained easily from the sink.
So, put some baking soda into your sink.
Then add some vinegar into it as well.
Wait for about 5-10 minutes.
Then boil 1 litre of water and pour it down the drain.
This will make the grease and oil thin and make them get drained easily from the pipes.
2. The Sewer Traps
Does your kitchen sink smell more like a sewer than rotten food?
This mostly happens when the water inside the traps gets evaporated.
After this, there is no block or obstacle for sewer gas to enter your kitchen.
Which leads to a sewer smell.
What is a trap, you ask?
The trap is the P or U-shaped pipe which is mostly attached beneath the sink basin.
Its main job is to keep sewer gas away from your house.
But then what happens when the trap fails to work?
When you haven’t used your sink for a long time.
The water inside the trap which blocks the sewer gas to come inside your house gets evaporated.
So, there are no more obstacles.
And the gas enters easily.
Solution?
It’s easy.
Just run the water for some time.
And leave it.
10-20 minutes later.
The sewer smell will be gone.
3. The juice at the bottom of your garbage can
It’s obvious.
Garbage smells.
And especially kitchen garbage.
Vegetable peels, leftover foods, oil, gravy, water, etc.
It’s a place for everything.
And most probably you discard kitchen garbage from time to time.
Still, it isn’t good enough.
Why?
Because the worst thing about wet garbage is their juice sinks deep inside the bin.
Getting stuck at the bottom of the bin.
And smelling like rotten food.
Solution?
Hose down the bottom of the bin.
And leave it out in the sun to dry.
When you place a fresh bin liner back into your bin, try sprinkling a little bit of bin deodorizer
4. The Stinky Refrigerator
Picture this –
You open your fridge, and a pungent, foul smell comes out of it.
Now you’re left wondering… what is smelling so bad?
Is it the vegetables, the fruits or the meat?
Let’s face it: If you keep any food, vegetable, or meat inside your fridge it starts smelling after 2-3 days.
This smell happens because of molds and bacteria that are produced by food leftovers, rotten food, moisture from spilled food, condensation generated from the fridge, etc…
And then your headache begins.
What should you clean and how do you remove that smell from the fridge?
An easy, lazy solution to this is to just put some baking soda and in a bowl.
And leave it in the fridge.
The baking soda will absorb all the foul smell and your fridge will start feeling fresh again.
5. Smelly Chopping and Cutting Boards
Let me ask you a question:
Do you properly clean your chopping board and then dry the water?
If not, it can create bacteria that smell a lot.
Many people out of their laziness just wash the chopping board with water and leave the board to soak in water.
Which builds up bacteria.
The proper way to clean a chopping board is to wash it with soap and then dry the board with some cloth.
Never let it soak the water in.
It’s not good.
Anywho… how do you remove this smell?
Take some salt.
And spread it all over the chopping board.
Then apply some soap onto it as well and wash it.
Then dry it properly with a cloth and you’re good to go.
Important Tip: Never let your chopping board or kitchen surfaces soak in water. This way it becomes a breeding ground for bacteria.
Always have a dry cloth nearby which you can use to dry the wet surfaces.
6. Dirty Cabinets
Your kitchen cabinets are victims of grease, grimes, sticky hands, and whatnot.
Consider this: An average kitchen cabinet costs around $5000 to build.
But because of our carelessness and sloppiness, these costly things end up looking dirty and smelly.
Solution?
Empty the cabinet.
Wash it with warm soapy water.
For any sticky patches, lightly spray with neat white vinegar (or use your 50:50 spray bottle solution of water and vinegar) and leave for 10 minutes to work, then rinse.
Don’t forget to pay attention to the door, both inside and out, and clean the handle.
If you have high gloss kitchen cabinets, after cleaning buff them with a cloth and spray of glass cleaner to really bring out the shine.
Need to deep clean your kitchen cabinet?
7. Smoky Oven
A lot of times an oven starts smelling like smoke.
This happens when you don’t clean its rack and interior surfaces for a long time.
Or another cause of smoke smell could be the food bits that get burnt on the heating element or the leftovers of the food on the surface of the oven.
Solution?
Give the oven a really good clean.
Remove the shelves and place them in the sink.
If the oven interior is very dirty, use an oven scraper to remove as much of the greasy build-up as possible, dampen the interior, then apply a good layer of bicarbonate of soda and spray with white wine vinegar.
Close the oven door and allow these two amazing elements to work together for at least 1 hour.
Soak the shelves in the same solution in your sink.
Afterward, rinse everything and clean it with warm water.
8. Exhaust and ventilation
So many harmful substances come out of the kitchen.
Smoke, steam, garbage, airborne particles, etc…
Does your kitchen have good ventilation and access to sunlight and natural air?
A lot of times what happens is due to the lack of sunlight and natural air the kitchen becomes clogged and heavy.
So, a lot of times when you’re cooking, a lot of grease gets stuck on kitchen walls and ceilings.
In the form of airborne particles.
This is not only smelly and funky.
But it can cause serious health issues.
A good, open kitchen ventilation system effectively removes the smoke, steam and airborne elements and contributes to temperature control throughout the kitchen area.
9. Descaling Kettle
Do you ever have a nasty decomposing smell coming out of your kitchen?
It may be because of the limescale deposited on your kettle.
Limescale is produced when excess calcium carbonate is deposited on the insides of pipes and kettles.
And then it gives out a decomposing smell.
What to do when this happens?
First off fill the kettle with half 1/4 cup of white vinegar or lemon juice and half cold water.
Then leave it for 1 hour.
Now boil the kettle and then empty it.
The limescale will come away with the water.
Refill it again with cold water this time.
Boil it one more time.
Then empty it and it’ll become normal again.
Summary
Keeping a kitchen clean and free from bad odors is one of the hardest tasks.
It’s one of the highest traffic places in the house and one of the most useful.
So, it can get tough to keep it clean.
Which leads to bad hygiene and ultimately bad health.
But if you can follow even one of these advices it can go a long way into keeping your kitchen clean and hygienic.
Such as let’s say you always make sure that you wash your chopping boards with soap and dry it with a cloth.
It will make sure that no amount of bacteria is left on the board and you’re eating healthy vegetables.
Or lets say you have a good exhaust and ventilation system.
It’ll not only keep airborne elements away but also keep you healthy.
Since you’ll be less affected with all the smoke and steam that’s generated inside a kitchen.
Hope this article goes a long way in keeping your kitchen clean.
Comment below and let me know which of these tips will you today.
